Liveless
by ThatLazyGuy
Summary: The harder you try to hide something, the more it'll come back to bite you. After being discovered down a black hatch, chained and empty, the road to self recovery is long and difficult but Nove can recover from most things.
1. Chapter 1

A/n: This is my first ever written story and will most likely be my last depending on how this does as this will most likely be from being bored and wanting to be productive. But I'm doing this after writing the chapter and I already feel like I want to do more. I don't plan to take this seriously but I would like to finish this. I am a novice writer so please leave constructive criticism or any criticism really.

I plan on make this mature, for the themes this will delve into and also I am 18 and this is what i'm going to write, I think i'd struggle toning down for all ages. Depending on the reactions on this could decide how quick the next chapter will be

Prologue Part 1

8 years ago

Shota Aizawa is crouched on a tree branch, scouting an abandoned warehouse out in the woods outside Musutafu on a clear night, moonlight giving a clear view of the whole building. Reports have been made of possible villains hiding out some heat here which could turn out to be some homeless person escaping the cold nights, due to this, no hero found this worthy of there time. Aizawa being in his third year of being a pro hero knew someone had to do it and being out in the sticks, no media was to see his exploits. He found the media tiring and a waste of time, and also avoiding them an essential to his career, more exposure he gets, the more villains learn his quirk and he couldn't have that, his combat style depended on it. So small jobs like this, he might as well do it. _Haven't seen any movement through the windows. I can see most of the main work floor part of the warehouse but I guess I have to get in to check the small side rooms and the office. I swear if there isn't anyone here or evidence of villains, i'm pushing the next job onto Mic. What am I thinking? Mic and stealth? Jesus what a pair._

Aizawa drops down and dashes towards the shadows of the rusty but still sturdy fences, not wasting a second getting over it, only being in the moonlight for a second before his back in the comfort of the shadows as he advances towards some empty shipping crates, using his momentum to climb on top of quickly to gain access of the roof and get to the skylights. _If i'm doing this, might as well do it properly, no point gaining bad habits. _Aizawa scans inside the warehouse, confirming what he saw from the branch, completely empty and looks like it has been for a while. He opens the latch and lifts the skylight, slipping in and onto the beams, then using his scarf to lower himself down quickly and quietly to the floor. _I don't know how Power Loader did this but he knows how to make a damn good scarf. _He stands in the middle of the wide open room with a half built conveyor belt taking in the surroundings for his report or for an impromptu exit, not letting himself get comfortable. He makes his way to the only door connecting the work floor, leading to the office area of the warehouse, Aizawa did his research and knows the floor plan and how many rooms he needs to clear. The hinges are rusted as he opens the door, having to lift it up a bit to open a bit to slip in to an empty hallway and looking down it as moonlight seeps through the windows as the hairs on the pro hero's neck stand up. _The documents clearing the construction of this warehouse doesn't clearly say who or what it is for, only answers I could find was that it was for some rich entrepreneur trying a new business scheme but it all fell through and it being so out of the way, no one has bothered repurposing it. _The 22 year old lifts his googles off to rest around his neck as he opens a door leading into the first room, not needing to step in as the room was empty with the exception with 3 chairs in the corner and a flipped table against the wall. _"_Nothing Eraserhead? No. Shocker" _Jesus how am I having sass with myself…. I have to hurry this up. _Eraser turns and opens the adjacent door, this time stepping into the room and looking around and only seeing empty cardboard boxes scattered about and a bunch of cobwebs going from corner to corner of the room. _It still bugs me, why did the plan fall through? Why did no one buy this building? Even if it is out of the way, a empty warehouse is a empty warehouse ready to be put to use. If there is a few homeless people in one of the next two rooms, what is so bad about leaving them here, they are trespassing but on whose property? The entrepreneur was a foreign one, he probably doesn't even remember this building. _

He turns and exits back into the hallway and clears the next room, finding evidence of what could have been a set up for a homeless person but it has been a while since they left. _And left they did in a hurry, few possessions left behind like this quarter filled lighter and one glove? Maybe villains scared them off, heard them coming and left when they could. I hope they got out okay. _Aizawa has been walking normally but the idea that something could actually be in the next room made him get low and ready, hand on his goggles lifting them back on as he enters the hallway and slowly approaches the fourth door. He reaches up for the door handle and slowly goes to open it to find that this door is locked. _First locked door in this entire place? What a coincidence. _Aizawa reaches into his pockets for his lock pick and gets to unlocking the door, getting ready to rush and get close to whoever is inside and on to the next. _From the signs that show lack of activity and the signs of these rooms, no more than 4 could be in this room, max 5. Before entering, roll a smoke and get to the furthest from the door first going low in the smoke, while the others can't see if i've entered or not, focused on the door and take them from behind. _After a deep breath and his grip tightens on the handle, he follows through pushing the door open and throwing the smoke as he swings the door wide open as he rolls into the smoke to get into the room quick but halfway his plans are pointless, he can tell this room is empty from the lack of reaction as he stands up in the room as it fills with smoke. _Wasted a smoke-bomb, wasted a three hours of doing something worthwhile. _Eraserhead takes his goggles off and sighs, irritated. _Smoke will clear in a minute, clear this room and get out of here and could probably stop a drug deal before sunrise. _The pro hero turns around as he looks across the room as the smoke gets clearer, he notices a stack of boxes in one corner and the lack of answer he has gotten tonight pulls the hero to them. Picking up one of them reveals that again it is empty and no label on it describing what it was for, as he moves on to the next and the next, each not revealing anything. The smoke now fully cleared Aizawa can make out a black metal floor under the boxes as he just pushes them out of the way, no longer caring for the boxes as they reveal nothing as it seems their only purpose now was to hide a black metal hatch. As he kneels down next to it, he takes in the 3 large and worn out padlocks on each side except the hinges, Aizawa knocks softly on the hatch as he listens as the knock does reveal that it is hollow and not just a pointless hatch.

_There was no underground plans in the blueprints and nothing in the property contract so why is there a hatch? Unless that's the point? That's why the scheme fell through, the entrepreneur forced out so villains could get this underground bunker or base but why would it be locked like this? Unless it's a stash or drugs here for safekeeping? I don't know how large this could be, I could call for back up but its nearly 4am and it could just be empty with only a bit of money inside, I can handle this. _

The lock pick is brought out again as he works on each padlock, pulling them off quietly to not alert whatever could be in there. After all padlocks are off and he pulls the lock open, he lifts it slowly up and rests the hatch against the wall, revealing a set of stairs descending into darkness. As he takes the first step down, the smell hits him and instantly feels the urge to be violently sick which he bites down and ignores the urge as he grabs his scarf and wraps it around his nose and mouth as it is breathable and blocks the smell as best as it could. Eyes watering, Aizawa pulls his goggles up and pulls out a utility flashlight and sees down the stairs only revealing only a few steps to the bottom which he takes slowly, the smell getting stronger and stronger. _Did a dead animal get trapped down here? Or 10? Feels like my nose is getting set on fire._ Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Aizawa saw him immediately, a scrawny bony boy chained to the wall tightly, head dropped. He looked on in shock as the boys ribs cage were on full display with each bone and indentation visible, his arms and legs look devoid of any muscle, all of this visible through the boys dark long hair, that's longer than his body but the thing that got Aizawa shocked the most, which left the young hero's throat dry was the fact he could see the boys chest lifting and dropping. _H-his breathing?! _He goes to move towards to boy and that's when he realises where the smell was coming from, the boy being chained with no room to move and no toilet visible, the answer was obvious. Aizawa's breathing starts to pick up quickly but just as quickly it halts, as the boys head stirs and raises to look at him. _H-his gagged? And his eyes are so devoid so…lifeless. _The two stare at each other until the boy realises whats going on and starts to struggle and thrashing violently against his restraints, tears starting to run down his cheeks. Aizawa Shota, while only three years new as a pro hero, has seen many people panicked and scared and reacted in so many ways but the way this boy was reacting, the way his restraints started to cut into his wrists, made the pro feel small, like he knew nothing about true horror. He reacted quickly to the boy, pulling out a syringe and getting close to the boy quickly and injecting him with tranquilliser to calm him and put the boy out. Aizawa turned to get up the stairs and make a call to anyone who could help him right now and as he walked out of the basement, phone already ringing, he missed the boys wrists start to smoke.

The pro stood in the room looking at the open hatch as the phone rang, not being able to drag his eyes from it for a second. The phone answers and a tired voice comes through "Yo Aizawa, its 3:56am, I got a radio show in the mor-".

"Mic i'm sending you my co-ordinates now, bring a ambulance and a patrol car. Im also going to get ahold of Midnight. This is urgent".

Aizawa's tone got Hizashi Yamada to wake up quick, he never heard his close friend use that tone "Uh yeah Eraser, i'm on it, i'll be there as soon as I can" as his already looking for his costume.

"Thank you" and with that Eraserhead got to calling Midnight, knowing her quirk might be handy.

Now Present Mic was worried, Aizawa thanked him. "Shit" as he put his arms through his sleeves.

Extra A/n: This is the result of staying up between 3am and 5am so please let me know if you can tell the writing seems a bit tired and rushed and where so I could edit and fix it. Much appreciated.

Also I do plan on making the next chapter at least twice as long maybe even more, I don't like how short this one is too but seemed like a good place to end it and I need to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Prologue Part 2

Having finished his call with Midnight, Aizawa turns to face and stare at the overbearing black hatch which laid open allowing the cool fresh air inside allowing the smell to at least subside. _I need to get him and bring him out of there, save the others from going down there. Gotta check for injuries and his condition, his obviously malnourished to a dangerous extent. They must have brought and locked him here in that condition, he probably weren't going to a survive a day or two longer. _As he starts to wrap the scarf back around his mouth and nose, gathering his thoughts on the one thing that matters to him right now is getting that boy out of his underground hell.

Stepping back down into the basement while leaving his flashlight on the second step from the bottom letting it light most of the small room, the pro hero approaches the boy while not being wary of where he steps, none of that matters to him, the only thing that matters to him is the cuffs around the boys wrist looking too tight for comfort. Upon looking at the boys wrists, Aizawa swore he saw the cuffs cut into the boy but there is no fresh blood on the cuffs only old and dried blood or cuts on the boy to back it up which made the hero think was putting the boy under necessary, there could be villains coming back for him any moment and only the boy would know. _What's done is done, no point thinking about what ifs, back up is already on the way no matter what._

Aizawa reaches for his lock pick while examining the cuffs looking for the keyhole to get them off but there was none to be found which told him only one thing. _He was left here to die, no one is coming back for him. _He places the lock pick back into his handy utility belt as he opts for the miniaturised blow torch instead, the cuffs being too tight against the boy so he began burning the chain link closest to the cuff. As the chain heated up, Aizawa looked over the boys features, or what he could tell through his hair rather, his eyes sunken and cheek bones on full display from all fat gone from his face but he guessed the boy had to be aged between 14 and 16. _Who the fuck could do this to a boy? Even if this kid has got into some bad business, even for villains this is so inhumane. _Aizawa's anger growing, he grabbed the cuff and pulled the first chain off freeing his left hand and started to work on the boy's right. _Did the villains build this basement in the last week to hide him? But why go through all the effort to hide a body? And the boxes covering the hatch were covered with inches of dust like the rest of this place so did they teleport in and out of here? Too many questions. _The right chain snapped off finally, freeing the boy from the stone wall as Aizawa carefully sat him forward and lifted him up bridal style, while being careful of his overgrown hair, out of the boy's own mess and walked towards the stairs and back above ground.

Aizawa carried the boy as he stepped onto one of the cardboard boxes, flattening it and pushing it against a wall to set the boy down on to get this gag off him. He leaned the boy forward again as he crouched down in front of him, not letting the boy fall forward as he looked at the back of the boys head and he was thankful to see a keyhole to undo it as he didn't want to melt this off but after seeing the keyhole he also saw the kid's exposed back and the tattoo on his left shoulder blade showing the letters IX. _IX? Roman numerals? Why is the kid tatted in the first place? More fucking questions. _Aizawa pulled back out his lock pick and made quick work of the lock and pulled the mask of the kid and leaned him back up against the wall as he got a better view of him in the moonlight coming through the fogged glass. His hair which went down to his knees was greasy and knotted but was black in colour and the only clothing he had on was some loose black shorts. The unconscious boy made no reaction to be lifted into the cold air the room was filled with but that didn't settle with Aizawa to let the boy go shirtless as he took off his baggy jumper leaving him with a long sleeved black t shirt and put it on the kid as he heard cars arrive outside near the warehouse.

The pro hero scooped the boy up once more and carried him to the main entrance where he saw Present Mic and Midnight both standing there, worried looks appearing on the faces replacing the tied ones they just had at the look of the kid in Eraserhead's arms. "Both of you, go through this door to get to the main work floor and on the right side there is one doorway, enter there and the fourth door down that's where I found him, go there and I'll be with you in a second". Aizawa stated the instructions clearly and swiftly not wasting any time stopping as he walked between the two who caught the slight smell coming off the both of them while he continued outside to the medics waiting.

Walking back out in the clear night, he motioned to the two medics who at the sight of the boy ran over to him. "I found him in this state, I don't know how long he has been here for but he is severely malnourished and found him in his own mess. He might have an illness or an infection but get him on sleeping gas. Upon discovery he reacted wildly and violently, gave him a quick look over but no visible wounds I could see but double check". Aizawa again spoke clearly and quickly as both medics nodded along taking in all the information as they took the boy off his hands. He then turned and walked over to the two officers "You two, set up a perimeter and secure this area. Anything seems weird or unordinary you let me know, got it?" Both officers nodded and took off in two separate directions as Aizawa ran a hand through his hair and breathed out slowly. _A long night indeed. _The hero turns and heads back into the warehouse.

As Aizawa walked back into the room with the black hatch, he found Midnight rubbing Present Mic's back as he was taking deep breaths "Did I say go down the hatch? I would have warned you about the smell." Present Mic took one more deep breath and stood up right while looking from the hatch to his friend and he nodded towards the hatch "I'm going to guess that's where you found the boy?". He asked in such way that he was hoping there was another answer but the Erasure Hero slight nod confirmed it. Aizawa looked at Midnight and saw her connecting the same dots he has already connected and began to explain his thoughts to the two. "As you saw, that boy is on deaths door, two more days and he was dead. Malnourished to the point all fat was used as little food for the body. For that condition to be that bad, he was brought here like that, and recently too."

Present Mic's eyebrows furrowed and a confused expression followed on his face. _But for the smell to be this strong, and the mess that was down there, he had to have been here longer than that. I only caught a glimpse but the dried blood on his cuffs looked to be a few weeks old, unless he was brought here in them? But that still doesn't explain the mess down there. _He looked to Aizawa and Midnight and voiced his concerns, even if they've already thought about it. "But if he was brought here in that condition recently, how does that explain the smell and the mess made? Hell, even in that condition there is no way that boy was making that amount of mess." _It's impossible and they know that, the boy didn't have anything to convert to even need the use of a bathroom. _

Midnight spoke out calmly as she could, even as she was shaken by the nightmare of what has happened, the same as all three of them were "Is there anything down there to identify the kid? Jesus, to identify anything? The person behind this or helped them?". Aizawa thought back, he took a good enough look in that room, a room that will probably be in his head for a while. "Nothing, the walls and stairs were cemented, no light source or even a window or a vent. The kid must have been running low on air too. Only other thing in that room was the chains mounted to the wall connected to the kid." He paused and look at the other two faces filled with mixed emotion, some sadness for the boy and the situation and some anger for whoever did this. "Only thing he had on him was some black shorts and something we could try and identify him with is a tattoo of the number nine in black roman numerals which is my speculation."

"From outside the hatch, this whole place seems like it hasn't seen a person in a year. The boxes covering it was covered in a thick layer of the dust and the door was locked to this room, all others weren't. When I took this task, I looked into the building plans and this hatch didn't exist." _It all points to the boy being here for much longer than what was possible, they're both smart enough to connect the dots too. "_The only thing I can think is that a villain was teleporting through his quirk or even someone else's and giving him the bare minimum required to survive and that gives us another question. Why?"

All three pro heroes stood there, thinking, hoping one or the other could see something they couldn't but no answers were coming to them. Present Mic was the first to rub his head and sigh, folding his arms in frustration "The way I see it, the only answers we are getting is from the boy in question, he knows who put him there, he knows why and he knows how his alive." Aizawa looked at Mic for a second, running through his head one last time but no answers or scenario was coming to him and from turning his head to look at Midnight, neither was it for the female hero either. "You're right, Hizashi, but you saw the boy's condition, we can't question him till his ready and when I discovered him, he reacted violently. I will follow the boys condition and when he is ready, me and Midnight will question him, if he does get violent then Midnight can put the boy under again and reevaluate how we do this." With that, Aizawa turned and started to walk out as the other two quickly followed, all three not wanting to spend another second next to that hatch.

Arriving outside, the lack of an ambulance there unsettled Aizawa and he looked at the two officers by there car for answers. Officer Yui, a short woman sporting only one eye giving her a cyclops look, stepped and looked up to the pro hero to give him the updates "Eraserhead, the perimeter is secure with nothing out of the ordinary with it being in the woods and all. The ambulance spent a minute looking over the boy but claimed the boy's condition was the closest to death either them have seen, they checked him over and claimed the boy had no fever but with how he was, they wanted the experts to take a look at him." Aizawa stood for a minute absorbing all the information as did the two behind him and asked "Do you know where they were heading?"

"I believe they mentioned the closest hospital would be Musutafu Health Institute, would you be needing a ride back into the city?" She asked out loud for all three to know it was open to all of them as they were the ones who brought Midnight and Present Mic both here. "All three of us would appreciate it, thank you" Present Mic spoke up and nodded as he placed a hand on Aizawa's shoulder, sending the message there was nothing else that he could do here which Aizawa nodded back to Officer Yui, accepting the ride.

As all three heroes were sat in the back, trying to keep the usage of space fair, Aizawa sat and thought as he watched the passing streetlights on the highway. _I'll make a quick visit to the hospital and advise them to be cautious, don't want any of them to get hurt because I didn't relay the fact he got violent, even if he thought I was the one who put him there or one of them. I'll check on his condition and then give it a week, let him recover a bit before questioning him to find who could do this. I'll recheck the land leases, the building paperwork, search for anyone who could be questioned on the monster that could do this. _The police car continued down the highway, as night time started getting lighter and the city of Musutafu could be seen in the distance.

-— -— -— -— -—

Somewhere, someone watched what unfolded through the security cameras of the warehouse which were made to look worn out and unused, he watched as the boy was taken out from his whole through a secret camera, impossible to see in the already dark room. They leaned back into their comfortable leather chair and smiled. "Finally".


End file.
